Download Civil Rights (2): The American Civil War

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Civil Rights (2): The American Civil War
1. The Political Origins of the Civil War
(i)
The Fugitive Slave Act (1850)
When California was admitted to the USA in 1850, the pro-Slavery Democrats
feared that this would further tip the balance of power within the States against the
South. The price exacted by the pro-Slavery politicians was the Fugitive Slave
Act (1850), which prescribed the return of any escaped slave to his or her owner.
This act formed part of the Compromise of 1850, which was designed to ensure
that the Southern States did not leave the Union. The Republicans had wanted to
make it unlawful for anyone to hold slaves in the new states entering the Union.
However, the Democrats demanded that Southerners doing business or farming
land in the accession state be allowed to bring their slaves with them.
The terms of the compromise: California was to be declared a free state, while the
people of Utah and New Mexico would be allowed to vote freely on the issue.

One of the most important pro-Slavery Democratic politicians was Stephen
Douglas. In 1854 he had proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in Congress,
which would have allowed settlers entering those states to hold slaves.
(ii) The Presidential Election of 1856
In the 1856 Presidential election the issue of slavery divided the USA. The
Republican candidate was John Frémont whose campaign slogan was “Free
soil, Free speech, Free men and Frémont.”

However, Fremont won only 11 out of the 16 northern states, and was
defeated by the Democrat James Buchanan.
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(iii)
The Presidential Election of 1860
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln (Republican) was elected as President of the
U.S.A..
Lincoln had long opposed slavery, but did not believe that the Southern states
should be forced to abandon it. He had joined the Republican Party in 1856,
and had opposed Stephen Douglas, who had argued that slavery should be
permitted into the Western states being admitted to the Union.

In his inaugural speech of 4 March 1861, Lincoln said:
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution
of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to
do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
(iv) The Secession
On 20 December 1860 the state of South Carolina held a special convention,
seceding from the USA, and declaring dissolved “the union now subsisting
between South Carolina and other States”.

By February 1861 several Southern states had also seceded:
Mississipi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, followed
by Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina.
The Southern secessionist states declared their own constitution, and
appointed their own president, Jefferson Davis.
(v)
The start of the conflict
In February 1861 the Confederacy (southern states) appointed its own
President, Jefferson Davis. In April 1861 he declared Federal military
garrisons to be under the control of the Confederacy.

The first shots of the Civil War were fired in April 1861 when the forces
of the Confederacy laid siege to Fort Sumter (South Carolina).
2. Slavery and the War Aims of the Union (the North)
(i) Lincoln’s War Aims
Lincoln went to war with the Confederacy in order to prevent the dissolution of
the USA. Opposition to slavery was not the principal war aim of the Republic,
but symbolised the question of the rights of the Union vs. individual states.
Furthermore, many northerners who wanted to preserve the Union also
believed in the rights of slave owners.
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
(ii)
Lincoln also recognised the importance of retaining the support of
those states that did allow slavery, but had remained loyal to the
Union – Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri.
Moves towards Emancipation

The First Confiscation Act (6 August 1861)
Any slaves who found themselves in the custody of Union Forces would not
be regarded as free men, but nor would they be returned to their owners in the
South. Instead, they would be put to work behind the front lien to assist the
Union war effort.
Therefore, during the first two years of the war black Americans were only
used in supporting roles, such as transport and supply.
By the end of August 1862 the Union government began to recognise the
need for blacks to serve in the army. In spite of its major advantages in
industry and population, the Union was not winning the war, largely due to the
superior generalship and high morale of the Confederacy.
Some in the Union government believed that the Confederacy was gaining an
advantage because of its ability to mobilise its manpower, while leaving
women and slaves in charge of the plantations.

The ex-slave and writer Frederick Douglass with the lawyer John
Langston and the doctor, Martin Delany, led a campaign to allow
Blacks to serve in the Union Army.
On the subject of slavery President Lincoln said:
“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I
could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by
freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”

The Second Confiscation Act (17 July 1862)
“That every person who shall hereafter commit the crime of treason
against the United States, and shall be adjudged guilty thereof, shall suffer
death, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free; or, at the
discretion of the court, he shall be imprisoned for not less than five years
and fined not less than ten thousand dollars, and all his slaves, if any,
shall be declared and made free; said fine shall be levied and collected
on any or all of the property, real and personal, excluding slaves, of which
the said person so convicted was the owner at the time of committing the
said crime, any sale or conveyance to the contrary notwithstanding.”
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The effect of this act was to free slaves who had escaped from the south,
while also allowing them to serve in the Union army. But abolitionist
movement pressured the Union government into declaring the freedom of all
slaves. However, the tide of the war did not favour the Union until the closing
months of 1862, and so the proclamation would have had little practical effect
for slaves in the South.

President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (22 September 1862)
“That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any
State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion
against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the
executive government of the United States, including the military and naval
authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will
do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may
make for their actual freedom.”
The effects of Lincoln’s proclamation:
In the short term Lincoln’s proclamation had virtually no effect. On 1 January
1863 all of the states who had seceded were still at war against the Union. Also,
the decree did not effect those slaves in Maryland, Kentucy and Missouri,
states within the Union, but which still allowed slavery.
Essentially, Lincoln made the proclamation as a tactical move to strengthen the
Union cause.
(iii)
Black Americans and the Union Army, 1863-1865

Between the end of 1862 and 1865, 178,892 black Americans served
in the Union Army and 32,369 of them died.
In spite of the major sacrifices made by Black Americans for the Union, they were
not treated to any form of equality comparable to that enjoyed by white soldiers.
Black soldiers suffered discrimination in a number of areas:

They were segregated into all-black units.

Black units were often deployed in very high risk areas, and they
suffered high casualty rates.

Until June 1864 they were offered only half the pay of white soldiers.

The Confederacy treated captured black soldiers as if they were
escaped slaves, and did not allow them the status of Prisoners of War.
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Summary: When the Confederate forces surrendered at Appomattox in 1865,
four million Blacks in the southern states were, effectively liberated.
President Lincoln faced a major set of challenges: how to re-integrate the
South into the Union; how to heal the political divisions of four years of war;
and the question of the role of Black people in a newly re-united Union.

Lincoln was never able to face this challenge, as he was assassinated on
14 April 1865.
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